She then goes on to discuss a list she’s created that has all of the food Tasha should avoid while TTC: Trying To Conceive.

Once she’s finished talking about Tasha’s new list of dos and don’ts, Melanie takes a second to express her appreciation.

She kisses Tasha on the cheek and then says, “I can truly call you my sister in motherhood” before leaving to return back to Derwin.

A second after Melanie departs, Pookie pops into the living room and asks whether everything is okay.

Tasha lies and says yes, but it’s hours later when she’s at the bar with Tee-Tee that she breaks down and discusses her true feelings.

“How . . . am I supposed to tell Pookie that I’m havin’ somebody else’s baby for the second time?” she asks. Her announcement 20-something years ago about being pregnant with Malik was the first time, she says.

“What I tell you about choosing yourself,” says Pookie. His advice: Tell Derwin and Melanie she can’t be their surrogate anymore. It’s time for her to find her own happiness.

Meanwhile, Jason and Chardonnay are finding new hurdles in their relationship.

“Relax, Jason. They probably just turned off my electricity,” says Chardonnay; her tips as a bartender haven’t been enough lately.

“I ran short on cash so it was either pay my electricity bill or make my monthly deposit into the Spadonnay savings account,” she says. “I chose the latter.” (Spadonnay is the salon Chardonnay dreams of opening in the future.)

Jason, usually not one to share the wealth and the official hater of Spadonnay, has a suggestion: “Why don’t I just give you the money?”

When Chardonnay tries to refuse because she’s an “independent woman,” Jason insists that she let him help her. When she offers to pay him back, he says he’ll only take it if it’s in the form of Spadonnay stock.

The next day he visits Chardonnay again, only this time she’s working on her side hustle — braiding hair — and has a surprise for him: money.

“You got your check — with interest,” she says.

Elsewhere, Tasha has invited Pookie over to square things away with him. But their conversation doesn’t go as planned.

“I got somethin’ to tell you,” she says. “Before you came back down here I kind of got myself into something and honestly I thought it was a wrap.” That’s as close as she gets to telling him the truth about her surrogacy.

But Pookie takes the vague news well: “Tasha, I am good. Okay?”

Back with Jason, he and Malik are driving around when Malik spots an embarrassing truth: Chardonnay at the bus stop.

Tasha looks more uncomfortable with every expression of gratitude. But it’s when Pookie texts her “To the brightest star in Richmond. Hope you’re doing well. Big ups Pookie” that she snaps.

“I’m sorry. Y’all, I can’t do this,” she says. “For once in my life I got to choose my damn self. I’m sorry.”

Melanie and Derwin return home, with Derwin encouraging Melanie to talk about how she’s feeling instead of walking around in silence.

“Doesn’t matter, Derwin. I’m done,” she says and then asks for a truth moment.

“I’m not happy with my life . . . I feel like a part of me has been missing ever since I turned down [residency at] Johns Hopkins,” she says. Derwin’s says he’s not trying to talk about her and Johns Hopkins, but Melanie persists.

“I know you don’t want to hear about this, but it’s the truth. I’ve been searching for something to fill this void ever since,” she says. “First it was the Sunbeams. Then it was trying to manage your career, and now it’s the baby.”

“It’s okay, bo- boo. You had a long crazy day,” says Derwin. “It’s all right to feel defeated.” He encourages her to take a bath and relax, but doesn’t offer any solutions for how to fix her plight.

Back with Chardonnay and Jason, the couple has reached another milestone in their relationship: Jason, while wearing sunglasses to make himself less recognizable, is riding the bus with her so that she can do her laundry. He’s embarrassed to be on public transportation and she’s embarrassed he’s wearing sunglasses when it’s “dark time,” but they make it work.

While discussing a game Chardonnay and her friends play while reading magazines, Jason slips up and utters those magic words every girl wants to hear: “God, I love you.”

Chardonnay doesn’t make a big deal of this and smiles while kissing him on the cheek.

Focused on having her own man to love, Tasha heads to Richmond to find Pookie, who has recently returned home.

After standing in the street and screaming his name at the top of her lungs, Pookie races outside.

“I’m ready to live out loud, baby,” she tells him. “For once in my life I’ve decided to choose myself. Which means I choose you, Pookie.”

She kisses him with an urgency and a passion that communicates her commitment to him, and a commitment to take Tee-Tee’s advice and choose herself.